A new report released by the American Bankruptcy Institute has revealed that bankruptcy filings skyrocketed during the first half of 2010, increasing by 14 percent. The total number of filings from January to June was 770,117, which was a significant increase over the 675,351 filings seen during the same period last year.
Samuel Gerdano, the executive director of the institute, expects there will be more than 1.6 million new bankruptcy filings by the end of this year.
The reason for the increase in filings is an increase in consumer debt and a decrease in savings account rates. Additional reasons included the housing and unemployment crisis (CNN Money).